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Themes and ideas explored in the beat generation
Themes of beat generation literature
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The Beat Generation was an influence on the American society during the twentieth century on how they portrayed the way of the American dream through performing arts. It all began in the 1950’s where a bunch of writers got together to right about how much they resented the postwar society (Sterritt, 1). It was right after War World II had past and the postwar age was very unsettling for the beat writers. It was turning into a conservative lifestyle and the beats wanted a way of showing that there writings would make an impact of what and how they thought of society and postwar. They too, like many others were effected greatly by the war and wanted a way of rebelling towards all the pain they went through during the war. This began the introduction of the Beat Generation.
The Beat Generation Quickly became known by their very aggressive way of writing. Their writing included from what people from the American society thought to be disrespectful and offensive type of writing, where they included Sex, drugs, race, and Rock n Roll in every one of their writings. They did this to simply make a statement. A statement that suggests that they do not care who they offend, they did this to tell their side of the story on how they thought postwar society had turned into, and how they wanted to rebel in regards of how the American culture turned into because of it. They loved that all of their works were involved with drugs, sex, and music because they were fascinated with it all (Sterritt, 2) and once some of their works came out everyone immediately knew who they were. This is what was known as a rebirth of a new world that influenced the twentieth century in a way that no one will ever forget.
After the Beat Generation became Known Ja...
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...and the Beat Generation. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 2010. Print.
Jack Kerouac: Road Novels, 1957-1960." Barnes & Noble. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.
Kerouac, Jack. Desolation Angels. New York: Riverhead, 1995. Print.
Morgan, Bill. The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour. San Francisco: City Lights, 2003. Print.
Sterritt, David. The Beats: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
Raskin Jonah, American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004.
Stephenson Gregory, the Daybreak Boys: Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation, Carbondale,
Ill : Southern Illinois University Press. 2009
Whaley Preston, Blows Like a Horn: Beat Writing, Jazz, Style, and Markets in the Transformation of U.S. Culture, Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press. 2004
The "Poet of the New Violence" On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg. Ed. Lewis Hyde. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1984. 29-31.
Perry, Imani. 2004. Prophets of the hood: politics and poetics in hip hop. Durham: Duke University Press.
During the 1950s, what became known as the "Beat Generation" inspired the challenge of and rebelling against conventional America. The Beat Generation was a form of counter-culture inspired by discontent. with the current state of life in America. This minority consisted of average people looking for something more in their lives than the common American Dream of suburbia and satisfaction, and was centralized primarily in Greenwich Village, New York. "Beats" or "Beatniks", as they were called, became words that took on a near literal meaning.
The word “jazz” is significant to America, and it has many meanings. Jazz could simply be defined as a genre or style of music that originated in America, but it can also be described as a movement which “bounced into the world somewhere about the year 1911.”. This is important because jazz is constantly changing, evolving, adapting, and improvising. By analyzing the creators, critics, and consumers of jazz in the context of cultural, political, and economic issues, I will illustrate the movement from the 1930’s swing era to the birth of bebop and modern jazz. As the 1930’s began, the effects of the Great Depression still ravaged the United States, which in turn caused a dramatic change in the music industry.
Rock ‘n’ Roll began to boom in the 1950’s. The music of Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard and of course Elvis Presley quickly became popular to the younger American generation. As for most parents or older Americans, they were afraid that this new style of music would promote sex and rebellious behavior. Rock ‘n’ Roll music however, did so much more for the United States in the 1950’s and 60’s. Because it started in the black culture, Rock ‘n’ Roll was bound to change American views on race. This music also lead to the thought of children growing up way earlier than they used to, creating the new term, teenager, or the time between being a child and being an adult. It was teenagers out of all the American generations at this time who really became influenced by Rock ‘n’ Roll. Rock ‘n’ Roll was the only kind of music that talked about how they, as teenagers, truly felt about growing up and wanting their independence as an adult. Rock ‘n’ Roll was thought to have changed American society because of the ways it portrayed sexual behavior and black rights, but it simply reflected the changes that were already underway .
The 1960s counterculture was a cultural sensation which first began to take shape in the United States and from there on it spread throughout the rest of the west. It spread sometime in the early sixties to early seventies. The counterculture sensation began to catch on quickly and it eventually went on to become groundbreaking. Several components contributed in making the counterculture of the 1960s a unique era from the other opposition movements of the previous eras. The post-war baby boom created an unexceptional amount of youngsters who were an integral part of making the counterculture movement. As the 1960s continued worldwide tensions began to develop in societies in which people followed the same strategies as their elders used to regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, human sexuality, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, experimentation with psychoactive drugs, and differing interpretations of the American Dream. Several new cultural forms arose which included the Beatles and parallel to it was the growth of the hippie culture. This led to the fast development of the youth culture in which change and experimentation were mainly highlighted. Many songwriters, singers and musical groups from the US and around the world made a major impact on the counterculture movement which included the likes of the Beatles. Basically, the 1960s counterculture grew from a convergence of events and issues which served as the main substances for the remarkable speedy change during the decade.
Rock and roll, one of the biggest and most influential parts of music history that came out of the 1950s and continued to change the United States in many ways through the mid to late 1960’s rock and roll had changed American youth drastically, inventing not only new sounds but a new culture. That culture would be known as the youth counterculture which changed the way everything would be perceived for the rest of time. It gave birth to a new, modern thinking, and morally concerned youth. Which is why I firmly do believe that the music of the 1960s wasn't just for entertainment, but for people to get their point across, to let the government and society know that things
In conclusion, the emergence of Rock and Roll was one of the most pivotal moments of our nation’s history. It challenged various racial barriers that existed during the 1950’s. With the ever increasing popularity of this genre, white supremacists feared the rise of black influence in the dominant white society. Also, the emergence of the Civil Rights movement fueled the expansion in the popularity of Rock and Roll among teenagers across the nation. This evoked protests from the parents of young teenagers who exhibited over sexualized mannerisms as a result of this genre. Furthermore, popular culture played an important role during the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the Cold War. It allowed society to escape the hardships of war and uncertainty while safeguarding the democratic freedom our nation was built upon.
Tytell, John. Naked Angels: the Lives and Literature of the Beat Generation. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
From it’s slow suggestive tunes to it’s loud and wild beats this music allowed people to go wild with a new kind of swing.“Appalled by the new styles of dance the movement evoked, churches proclaimed it Satan 's music (America Rocks and Rolls) .” Expressing oneself was, and still is/is, the core of rock music and this thrilled the youths because they got to show themselves in a way no one else had before. From the music to the dance moves to the clothes, rock and roll was all about showing off oneself. It was a great breather from before when it was all about fitting in. During the rock and roll era the flamboyantse clothes were the tip top if fashion and was worn by celebrities and fans alike. Rock became itsflamboyant clothing and itsthe clothing became rock. ”It is apparent from Garofalo’s earlier quote that rock ’n’ roll in the 1950s is held to be a watershed moment in the rise to prominence of African American sounds in the pop mainstream. “ Opening up isn’t easy especially with all the segregation that was going on then. The earlier forms of music like jazz and the blues were bringing popularity to the African American community, but they were still considered lower than those with the lighter skinned people. They were fighting for equality and all those feelings transferred to their famous music too. When blues and jazz evolved to rock and roll, those feelings were still there and people of all colors were attracted to it. The more popularity rock gathered, the less, people could stay away and in the end, rock and roll spread like wildfire until it was nationwide. Opening up meant having people listen to and understanding the feelings of another, and those chaotic feelings became the music we know and love today called rock and roll. the melodies of rock created a perfect way to do
Forman, Murray. “Conscious Hip-Hop, Change, and the Obama Era.” American Study Journal. American Study Journal. 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
In Kafka Was the Rage, Broyard described his life as a hipster. It was 1947, after the world war II. Brossard chose to live in Greenwich Village with Sherri Donatti, who was an abstract painter, rather than to live with his parents in Brooklyn. The Greenwich Village at that time presented the freedom and new ways of thinking, which was the world of artist and writers. There was peace and prosperity and a bright new world for the young. He insists that he is not the voice of the beat generation, however, his behavior can be regarded as the beat generation. He likes going to clubs and having sex with various girlfriends. “I say that sex used to be more individual, more personally marked, than it is now”(Broyard, p141). He thinks that the topic of sex is much different from the past and there is no shame to talk about the sex. Another hipster, Peggy Guggheim, has many common features with Broyard, since she admits that she has many sexual relation with many artists and writers. From my perspective, Broyard and Guggheim are beatnik since they both being free, believe the sexual liberation and being creative, which match the philosophy of beat generation which is conducting of oneself to reject white society, combining experimentation of using drugs and sexual liberation. Beat is the mindset of the beatnik subculture, which related each other. As Leland mentioned in the book, “The beats prescribed an ethos of lifestyle change”(Leland, p153). Beats generation changed a lot and even can easily tell from the clothing.They prefer to wear unusual or exotic dress. Social responsibility for them means nothing and they hate work and study. They disdain social order, against any stereotypes. Chasing freedom, using drugs and having sex is gradually becoming part of their life. Leland described them in this way, “The beats romanticized black life at the margins, imaging it as
Ross, Alex. The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. New York: Picador, 2008. Print.
As a movement, the Beat Generation (late-1940’s through the 1950’s) was eventually absorbed into the American Counterculture movement of the 1960’s (1964-1972), an anti-establishment cultural event that was developed in the United States and Britain and predicated upon a lifestyle of peace, love, harmony, music, mysticism, and religions outside the Judeo-Christian traditions so prevalent in the United States at the time. The application of meditation, yoga, and psychedelic drugs were adopted as ways to expand the consciousness. “It [the counterculture] was an attempt to rebel against the values our parents had pushed on us. We were trying to get back to touching and relating and living” (Lisa Law).